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64% of Americans now support the legalization of cannabis, an all-time high since Gallup first asked the question in 1969. Also for the first time, a majority of Republicans (51%) support legalization, up from 42% last year:
As efforts to legalize marijuana at the state level continue to yield successes, public opinion, too, has shifted toward greater support. The Department of Justice under the current Republican administration has been perceived as hostile to state-level legalization. But Attorney General Jeff Sessions could find himself out of step with his own party if the current trends continue. Rank-and-file Republicans' views on the issue have evolved just as Democrats' and independents' have, though Republicans remain least likely to support legalizing pot.
Also at NPR, The Hill, NORML, and Reason.
Related: New Attorney General Claims Legal Weed Drives Violent Crime; Statistics be Damned
4/20: The Third Time's Not the Charm
(Score: 3, Insightful) by a262 on Saturday October 28 2017, @02:40AM (7 children)
And yet, in a democratic country where the majority agrees it should be legal, it is still not legal. How does that make sense?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by takyon on Saturday October 28 2017, @02:55AM
The War on Drugs has been a long national nightmare. Don't forget the experiment with alcohol Prohibition.
Added the following to tomorrow's opioid story:
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 28 2017, @04:01AM (5 children)
And, I must point out an error on your part. We don't live in a democracy. Public schools indoctrinate us to believe that we do, but we do not. We live in a republic. We have democratically elected representatives, but that doesn't make it a democracy. The republic has it's own agenda, which seems to be selling influence to the highest bidders. With respect to cannabis, the highest bidders seem to be the pharmaceuticals.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Whoever on Saturday October 28 2017, @06:01AM (3 children)
I wonder what that would be.
Nope, that's not it. I wonder what it is?
The Republic of the USA is a type of democracy. So, we do live in a democracy.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/05/13/is-the-united-states-of-america-a-republic-or-a-democracy/?utm_term=.0cc3eefaade0 [washingtonpost.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 28 2017, @09:43AM (2 children)
From your link, "The United States is not a direct democracy, in the sense of a country in which laws (and other government decisions) are made predominantly by majority vote."
That puts paid to the Democrat's complaint that Hillary won the "popular vote", however they wish to define "popular vote". And, it most certainly ruins the idea that "we live in a democracy". In a real democracy, every vote is equally valued, and equally valuable. In a real democracy, whatever is popular becomes law. We live in a republic, in which the popular vote is kind of important, but the vote doesn't decide what law is. Even if a majority of residents in your town decide that a huge vacant lot should become an amusement park, they don't get that park unless a whole bunch of other hoops are jumped through. And, even then, the vote can be trumped by city council, because business and/or industry will likely generate more revenue for the city, than an amusement park.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Whoever on Saturday October 28 2017, @03:47PM (1 child)
Did I claim we live in a direct democracy?
You keep adding your own qualifiers to the definition of democracy and then say the the USA doesn't meet your definition. But it's your definition. It's not a definition of democracy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 28 2017, @05:02PM
dude, first try to have clean elections. Only after that you can shout about how great your democracy is
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 28 2017, @07:03AM
And if you look historically you will see this has been true since the founding of the country.
Most people go 'oh the supreme court was the founding father's invention!!!' It was not. The original system only had the Executive and the Legislative branches. The addition of the supreme court was done by the federalists as a new enforcement/filibuster mechanism for laws when the next party took over as Federalist influence was waning (as had Whig influence prior to it.)
American politics has however always revolved around two parties. If one of the parties sufficiently incensed the population or otherwise weaked its support a third party might spring up and wash it away (As in fact happened with the Democratic Republicans which in turn eventually split into the Democrats and Republicans before the civil war, along with the short lived Warhawks and a few other parties whose names I forgot.) Then the Democrats and Republicans to a certain degree flipped stances during the 20th century as each tried to cater to a different audience. The Democrats to Unionists, Blacks, Bankers/Brokers and eventually Hollywood, and the Republicans focusing on Big Oil, an ever broadening range of religious groups, many of whom might have offended the religious supporters of the Republican party from the past, and businesspeople, both large and small, but over time more to the large players, while throwing the small guys rhetoric and a bone here and there (Democrats do the same, but this is already twice as long as I was expecting and I don't feel like backtracking in my stream of thought.)
If people decide that a representative democracy is no longer for them, or that the electoral college is no longer providing the benefits that it was claimed to provide for the stability of the country, then it is time to draft up measures, exert political pressure on your representatives, and get the system changed. American politics have changed, the old ways have begun failing us, even if most of the Constitution itself hasn't (although the 2nd, 4th, and 9th may have, and the 5th is certainly being strained under the level of deep data mining and informational recording going on at the corporate and national level...) It is really time for more Americans to stop taking others words for it and start doing the research themselves, even if they can only spare a few minutes each day between their other obligations, because the America of Tommorrow is being decided today and far too many people are treating it as somebody else's problem. And hint for them: those somebodies might not have their collective best interests at heart.